Carrie (1976)

Carrie (1976)
Director: Brian De Palma
Cast: Sissy Spacek, Piper Laurie, Amy Irving, William Katt, John Travolta, P.J. Soles
Memorable Line(s): "It has nothing to do with Satan, Mama. It's me. Me. If I concentrate hard enough, I can move things."

Adapted from Stephen King's first novel, Carrie gives us the story of a high school misfit who suddenly discovers she has the power to get even with all those who have tormented her. In a big way.

Carrie White (Spacek) is a backward and introverted high school girl being raised by a Puritanical mother (Laurie). Tormented regularly at school by the "popular" girls, her suffering hits an apex when she has her first period while in the girl's locker room. Along with this normal body change comes a very abnormal by-product -- the power to move things with her mind. An empathetic classmate (Irving) takes pity on Carrie and pleads with her handsome and popular boyfriend (Katt) to take Carrie to the prom. For a very short while, things become like a Cinderella dream for Carrie, but things take a decidedly bad turn when a girl (Soles) who had been banned from the prom for torturing Carrie decides to play an ugly prank on Carrie for revenge.

Spacek is completely convincing as Carrie. She has Carrie's mousiness down to an art. Irving, Soles and Travolta have the high school thing down too. Piper Laurie does a good turn as the over zealous mother.

Upon my initial review of this movie, I was turned off by De Palma's split screen treatment during several pivotal scenes. It added an artificiality to the movie that distanced me from it because it seemed more like gimmickry and didn't support the story well. On subsequent viewings, my view on this treatment softened some, but I still think that the movie would have better served with a more conventional treatment.

The strength of the movie lies in King's source material which masterfully gives us snapshots of the view of high school from a misfits point of view. Spacek owns the character of Carrie, too and that's the other positive element for the movie.

If you're looking for a true Stephen King scare fest, you might be better off with another one of the movies adapted from one of his novels. Carrie, while not the best Stephen King movie, still holds its own.

Halloween (1978)

Halloween (1978)
Director: John Carpenter
Cast: Donald Pleasence, Jamie Lee Curtis, P.J. Soles

It's a supernatural maniac with a knife. What an original idea for a movie, right? It should stink, but it doesn't. Somehow Carpenter takes this simple concept and makes it work and that's a credit to his considerable skill as a director (when he is on his game, which isn't always). It's creepy. It's suspenseful. Halloween works.

Halloween follows a small group of teens as they prepare for Halloween in a small mid-western town. Unbeknownst to them a terrifying killing machine by the name of Michael Myers has escaped an asylum and heading to town to strike some unspoken revenge. Jamie Lee Curtis is the siren that calls the maniac to town. Donald Pleasence brings a gravitas to the movie as the psychiatrist who somberly states that this "evil" should never be let out. Michael Myers works his way through teen after teen and then sites his targets in Jamie Lee.

Carpenter employs a Hitchcockian approach that builds suspense and keeps us watching for what comes around the corner. The treatment is simple, yet effective. Carpenter, while no Elmer Berstein, gives us a memorable score that elevates the tension throughout the movie.

If it's a good scare that you want, Halloween will fill the bill. If you dare.

Dawn of the Dead (1978)

Dawn of the Dead (1978)
Director: George Romero
Cast: Ken Foree, David Emge, Scott Reiniger, Gaylen Ross
Memorable Line(s): "The dead get up and kill. The ones they kill get up and kill."

* A Guilty Pleasure *
It's 1979, I'm going into the theater not really knowing what to expect and this is what I got:
- a zombie biting into a women's neck,
- a person's head being blown off with a shot gun at point blank range
- the top of a zombie's head being cut off by the blades of a helicopter
- zombies ripping out and eating someone's entrails
The list could go on and on.

And the bottom line is that I loved it. I was back the next week to see it again and then even went to the drive-in with a group of my rowdy high school friends to see it yet again. With the exception of "Blade Runner," this is the movie I've seen most on the big screen and I've seen it on in the small screen too many times to count.

If that's not an endorsement, then what is? Of course, it's not for the faint of heart.

With all that being said, "Dawn of the Dead" is a movie that is much greater than the sum of its parts, too. Made by George Romero on a shoestring budget in his hometown of Pittsburgh, the film picks up where Romero's original shocker, "Night of the Living Dead" left off. A mysterious plague had descended on the earth, possibly from outer space (but what does it matter?), that re-animates the recent dead into flesh eating creatures with little or no intellect. And that's when the fun begins.

The audience's perspective on the disaster comes through the eyes of four characters on the run -- two cops, a TV news producer and a helicopter pilot. They escape the big city to the countryside just as law and order is breaking down completely. Not having a real plan, they finally end up landing and taking harbor at a large indoor shopping mall. The place is filled with undead types and our rag-tag teams spends quite a while securing the mall and dispatching the zombies. Then comes existence after an near apocalyptic societal breakdown and all that its not cracked up to be.

Their unhappy, but comfortable life is interrupted by a literal invasion of a horde of bikers who want what are heroes have. Our heroes have the choice to cut and run or defend what they have come to call home. They choose fight instead of flight, much carnage ensues and that leads to a war in which everyone looses.

The film is more complex than just a zombie attacks humans horror movie. It's a tale of survival and the choices we make when push comes to shove. There's also a subtle undertone of commentary on our consumer culture that deepens the message of the film.

But if your zombies along with graphic blood and gore are your thing, this is the movie for you.

[NOTE: This movie was remade with a bigger and better budget in 2004 and to go against the outcome of many remakes, it is quite good and very horrifying, even more so than the original.]

The Night Stalker

The Night Stalker (1972)
Director: John Llewellyn Moxey
Cast: Darrin McGavin, Simon Oakland, Claude Akins
Memorable line: "Now are you willing to listen to my insane ideas?"







* Small Screen Gem *
Television isn't without its gems and one example of a TV movie that inspired a few future directors and programs was "The Night Stalker." (This includes a short lived series by the same name inspired by the original series which aired on ABC in 2006.)

This original and witty pilot spawned a series by the same name. "The Night Stalker" movie starred Darrin McGavin as the intrepid Karl Kolchak. Kolchak is an old fashion, wise cracking newspaper reporter who is like a dog with a bone when he gets a lead on a story. Set in Las Vegas, Kolchak starts covering a mysterious series of murders in which the victims were drained of all their blood. All facts lead to the unthinkable and unspeakable when it comes to city officials -- "It's Las Vegas, we can't scare off the tourists."

The plot thickens with each murder, yet Kolchak gets no cooperation from the authorities. Feeling a moral responsibility and seeing a sensational scoop, Kolchak follows this story to the bitter end.

The production values of the TV movie are indicative of television production standards of the day (sort of bland and without style), but the script is witty and McGavin is compelling as Kolchak. There's a charm behind the production that makes it endearing and engaging.

The series lasted two years and got increasingly more campy as it progressed, but there were some quality episodes in the series.